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Jack/Behind the Scenes
Background Information Television Series Jack is a fictional front loader created by Phil Fehrle. He was created to be the lead character in the spin-off series, Jack and the Sodor Construction Company. In 2002, Jack made his debut in the sixth series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends in the episode, Jack Jumps In, before appearing in Jack and the Sodor Construction Company. He later appeared in the twelfth series and the special, The Great Discovery. When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, Jack was absent for four years. He later returned in the 2013 special, King of the Railway. Since his return in 2013, Jack has been voiced by Steven Kynman in the British English dub and David Menkin in the American English dub. Behind the Scenes Live-action model Jack's model was custom built by model maker, Dave Poole. The model's chassis was built out of brass and the top was built out of plastic to keep the weight down. A small flat fan was built underneath the chassis to cause the dirt to be kicked up. The model was painted in a matte finish and the numbers were custom stickers. There were three remotes built to control Jack, one was used to control his movement, one was used to operated his bucket, and one was used to move his eyes. The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired. Fifteen faces were sculpted for Jack, although only nine were used onscreen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. One of Jack's semi-complete face mask is now preserved by the Top Props preservation group. File:JackModel.jpg File:Jack'smodel.jpg The concept art for Jack and a behind the scenes picture shows that he was originally going to have a backhoe arm and bucket, but this was later removed. Model maker Chris Lloyd claimed the backhoe was removed because it was problematic and could not move a lot as there was not enough room to store the radio gear and batteries. However Phil Fehrle claimed the back-hoe was removed because using it would cause Jack to be facing away from the action and for story purposes it was important to feature his face as much as possible. File:Jackconceptart.png File:JackBehindtheScenes.jpg The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI and the characters' faces were animated through CGI with the aid of motion capture animation. The physical models' moulded faces were replaced by white targets with triangles to fix a computer-animated face in post-production. Jack's resin faces were only used in background shots. File:PercyandtheBandstand7.png File:PercyandtheBandstand8.png File:PercyandtheBandstand60.png CGI Model In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Jack was recreated from scratch in CGI by Arc Productions in 2012 for production of the 2013 special, King of the Railway. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software. It should be noted that when Jack was made into CGI his face changed shape. According to railway consultant Sam Wilkinson, this was a mistake that no one noticed until he joined the production team and pointed it out, but by then it was too late to change it. Jack has had a few modifications throughout the CGI era. These include: * King of the Railway: ** He gained hydraulics. ** His exhaust pipe became taller and gained holes on the sides, as well as a handle. ** He decreased in size. ** His face changed from round to square. ** His rear wheelwells were moved back. ** The tread patterns on his tyres changed slightly. ** The colour of his alloys also changed from cream to grey. ** His roof became completely orange. ** His number increased in size. ** His bucket increased in size. ** The colour of his cab changed from cream to white. File:Jackpromo.png File:CGIHead-onJackPromo.png Voice Actors * Steven Kynman * David Menkin * Tim Kreuer * Daniel Schütter * Naomi Shindō * Hideki Nakanishi * Keiko Nemoto * Artur Pontek * Yannick Blivet * Gilan Shachaf * Paul Disbergen * Scott Maurstad * Nacho Rodríguez * Mariano García * Joonathan Kettunen * Vitor Mello Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Images of Jack Category:Images from behind the scenes